Part 2: The Rabbit Hole

Buffy sat up and gasped. There was a huge pain in the back of her skull and she cringed when she remembered what had happened.

"Just relax, Buffy." A smooth voice told her.

She took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Spike got shot."

She opened her eyes and looked around wildly. "Where is he?"

But the groaning sound next to her told her enough. She jumped off her chair and helped him sit up and he winced from the metal bar being pulled from the back of his skull.

"You ok?" she asked him softly, checking his body for wounds.

"I got shot, the bloody bastards shot me," he groaned and looked at his shoulder. He was more surprised to see no black trench coat or no bullet wound--yet the pain was still there.

She looked at his shoulder and touched the exposed skin, tentatively. He winced and drew his shoulder out of the way. "Nothing's there."

"It's all in the mind."

Both Buffy and Spike looked up at the voice.

"Oh my god, it's Laurence Fishburne," she murmured in awe.

The man looked confused. "What?"

Buffy's face fell and she panicked. "This can't be real."

Spike nodded in agreement and stood up along with her.

Buffy looked around wildly, her hand reaching out for the back of her head and with wide eyes she discovered the hole in her skull. Spike looked at her with the same statement of confusion. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded from Morpheus.

"You know who you are, Buffy--you're the one."

~~~~~~~~~

"Haven't they been gone long enough?" Jonathan asked nervously.

Warren rolled his eyes and sighed. "They're not our problem now--we continue with our plans. No Slayer after... Sunnydale is ours."

~~~~~~~~~

"You mean to say, Spike that you don't remember anything of the time we've spent together?" Morpheus asked the blond who was currently hairless.

He had freaked when he first found out, Buffy's hair was the same length, she had it up in a ponytail but he was hairless, with little soft stubs growing.

"I told you again, mate. Buffy and me are from another place, only when we got inserted into your reality everything changed.... the guy you want is Neo. Neo is the chosen one, not Buffy."

"Well I am chosen... in a way--in my dimension... you see it's very complicated." she smiled at the large man.

Morpheus looked at Tank, who raised his eyebrow and shrugged.

"Perhaps there's been a 'glitch in the Matrix... "

"A time continuum?" Tank finished.

Morpheus nodded and looked back at the unlikely couple who were huddled close by.

"I think there's only one person who can help us solve this," he said.

"The Oracle?" Buffy asked tentatively.

Morpheus looked at her and nodded. "How did you know?"

Buffy shrugged. "I watched the movie."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Willow, Tara, Xander and Dawn stood in the Summer's living room staring at each other.

"They've been gone for roughly 38 hours?" Xander asked. Dawn and Willow nodded.

"You think they could've gotten kidnapped..." Dawn asked, almost afraid.

"Perhaps, they're bu-busy," Tara suggested.

Xander looked at her. "Busy doing what?"

Tara ducked her head and looked around at the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It was night... well it was always night here. Buffy sighed as she laid on her cot looking up at the ceiling. The first thing she was going to do when she got home was kill those dorks that had gotten her into this mess to begin with.

She turned on her side, facing the wall and bit her lip.

She was lonely.

Spike was in the bunk two doors down. But... she missed him.

He had still accepted and respected what she had said.

They were over.

She grew restless and flopped back on her back. After fifteen minutes of counting the dust particles on her metal ceiling she sat up on her bed and padded out of her room.

The hall was cold and she shuddered, wrapping her thin arms around herself.

She stood before his open door... he was sleeping. At least it looked like he was sleeping.

He was lying on his side, facing the wall like she had done before she gave up and... came to him.

"I know you're there, Slayer." he murmured.

Buffy sighed and gave in, padding lightly into his room.

He turned to face her, it was weird looking at him without his bleached hair, now he had a soft fuzz of dark brown hair.

"Come for a bit of cold comfort?" he asked her.

She didn't respond but just stared at him, impassively.

He sighed and rolled back to were he was at. He really didn't feel like playing games with her.

She said nothing but carefully laid down next to him, her small body lightly spooning him.

He froze and turned to face her.

Her eyes gave her away.

She was scared.

He sighed and wrapped his arms around her, letting her head rest on the crook of his neck. Buffy sighed and breathed in his smell. She felt safe here... almost complete.

She looked up at him, his pale lids were closed and she smiled. Then something happened... something almost cute that made her do another something. He wrinkled his nose... she'd never seen him wrinkle his nose. So she kissed it.

His eyes flew open and he looked at her in the dark. There was a question in them, she couldn't begin to answer it so she settled for running her small hand over the fuzz that now covered his head.

"Brown?" she asked.

He had to admit that felt damn good. He closed his eyes and let her rub tiny patterns on his head.

"Yup," he answered after a while.

"It's soft," she whispered.

He took her exploring hand in his and kissed her palm. "We'll get back home... were it's bleached and stiff."

She looked at him. "Promise?"

He nodded and said no more.

That was enough for her as she cuddled herself against him ... after a while she discovered he snored.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ok, gone for 4 days, really freaked out now." Xander paced back and forth in the Summer's living room.

Tara nervously wrapped her fingers in her scarf, twisting it until her fingers went blue. "Maybe... well maybe they lost track of time."

Xander glared at her. "Lost track of time? Doing what? Disappearing?"

"Hey! Tara has nothing to do with this!" Willow stood in front of Xander, glaring at her best friend. Tara ducked her head and looked down at her fingers.

Xander sighed and a guilty expression crossed his face. "Tara, I'm sorry--didn't mean to take it out on you."

Tara shook her head. "It-It's ok, Xander, we're all worried." She looked over at Dawn who was cuddled up to her softly crying, and she wrapped her arms tighter around her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike and Buffy both looked at each other as Morpheus sat in the chair himself.

"Just relax, your body will adjust itself, after a while you won't even feel it," Morpheus said.

That chair that had that metal thing to be stuck in the base of their skull. Buffy winced but sat there anyway. "Right, nothing like having a metal stick rammed up your head."

Spike glanced at the chair impassively, but figured they had to see the Oracle to get back home.... and hope that his hair wasn't really shaved off.

They locked eyes before their eyes went wide at the uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling of going back into the Matrix.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ok.... is that supposed to happen?" Andrew asked Warren as he looked at him carefully.

Warren typed quickly into his Mac... then sighed and raised his hands in surrender.

"Whatever happened it wasn't me.... it's like the computer took over."

Jonathan pushed Warren out of the way. "Computers don't take over! Bring them back now!"

Warren shook his head. "I didn't do it... it's like they're lost."

Andrew's eyes got really big. "Dude, do you think the Matrix took over?"

Jonathan snorted. "Of course not, you idiot..." he looked at Warren who was biting his nails. "Right?" he didn't answer. Jonathan got pissed and grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt. "Right?" he screamed.

Warren shook him off and pushed him to the floor. "I told you, I don't know... it's like the computer wants to keep them there... like it's protecting them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TBC.....

(Preview for the next part: Spike watched the woman carefully, controlling his every movement. She was not going to figure him out. The woman turned to him and smiled. "You're already in love with her, Spike, I can't add to that." She smiled kindly.

Spike looked down. "Yeah, but it's no use if she doesn't love me."

"Is that a fact?")